I am not sure if it will work or not or if they will want to keep everything, Hasbro already got Descendants so will there being any point of EAH? it will be confusing, plus there is not that much difference between the Hasbro Disney Princesses and the Mattel ones apart from the moulds, line wise they are pretty much the same, with the gimmicks, how many water play Ariel dolls do we need?

MH might be different with different moulds and bodies yet again but will they go in the dark direction or will they be cutesy again?

DC Super Hero girls I could see working, but they already have great bodies so if they were different it might ruin it a bit, I can see making them smaller for some reason,

Barbie has been Mattel's from day one so having her being made a new company after all this years, will it work or not?

Hasbro used to own Sindy the British doll, who rivaled with Barbie, Mattel even filled a lawsuit against them and won cause Sindy looked too much like Barbie, she was even pulled from US stores, so it's got to be a kick in the teeth for them to have Hasbro now own Barbie.

and let's not forget all the other lines, the brand new lines they just started making, what does that mean for them?

It's a terrible idea, it'd lead to stagnation because there would be no competition and thus no reason to strive to improve.

Competition is essential for any market, proper competition and Hasbro and Mattel are the two big guns. If they merged, we'd never see anything new or exciting, it'd just be same ol' same ol' plod plod plod safe options.

I'd prefer to see Hasbro take up making proper fashion dolls again so they could really push Mattel to start putting in some damn effort again.

We need MGA and Spinmaster back in the game too. Spinmaster seem to have abandoned dolls while MGA is focusing on surprise toys right now.

But if you look at the periods where Mattel has had no competition, look how bland and boring their toys became.

Mattel is already in the position where its only competition is Hasbro, and they aren't doing much in dolls at all except for Disney Princesses which are just kind of there, Descendants which has too small of a presence, the new Star Wars dolls and the new Equestria Girls which I don't think will do very well. Mattel has Barbie in both playline and collectors markets, plus whatever's left of Monster High and Ever After High, then DC Superhero Girls, Enchantimals, the Wonder Woman dolls and Kuu Kuu Harajuku. Rumour has it that Polly Pocket's coming back as well.

Other than Mattel and Hasbro, who else is there to compete? MGA has Project Mc2 but they aren't promoted very well - and the last season of the Netflix series felt very much like a finale, so it may be on its way out. Spinmaster isn't even trying to reenter the doll market, Jakks Pacific only really has Disney Fairies and Star Darlings which is all but done, and companies like Moose Toys don't need to enter the doll market because surprise toys are where the money's at. The only other company I can think of is whoever makes Shibajuku Girls, which is hardly a winning brand at the moment.

Mattel already has a huge monopoly on dolls and its biggest competitor isn't even trying to compete. Hasbro needs to focus on creating its own ideas instead of buying into others.

I think it would be a disaster. I don't even want to think about it. I am not very impressed by Hasbro dolls. I really don't like the Disney Princess line. I never did but I really find the Hasbro princess horrible. Not very impressed with the Descendants either or any other doll line they have at the moment. At least Mattel had really amazing lines with MH and EAH. I would not buy DC Super Hero Girls for myself but I think they are good dolls. And barbie is Mattel trademark. Even if Mattel is going downhill, there is hope that they could pull themselves together. I think this merger would mean we'll never see another good doll line.

its a bad and worrisome as Disney buying Fox, no competition means no creativity.

then again fashion dolls seem to be dying in favor of smaller plastic bodiced dolls and blind bags. EAH and MH are pretty much dead at this point. Id be worried how it would affect Barbie and DC Superhero girls.